Some controlled environment facilities (e.g., those administered by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ)) only allow messages to and from residents via postal mail. Yet there is a large administrative overhead in managing postal mail. For example, the current process usually involves receiving, opening, and reading the mail, to prohibit certain activities, such as issuing threats, sending inappropriate pictures or magazines, or conducting confidence games. The mail is then put back in the envelope and delivered to the resident of the facility. As an example of the volume of mail, between Mar. 1, 2003 and Aug. 31, 2003, there were 9,787,751 pieces of outgoing correspondence and 9,989,414 pieces of incoming correspondence at all 105 TDCJ units, not including packages, books, newspapers, publications or free printed material.
Further compounding the problems associated with handling the volume of communication, the communications must typically be reviewed to prevent residents from sending prohibited content or engaging in prohibited activities. Residents attempt to engage in prohibited activities by using increasingly sophisticated ways of obfuscating their activities. Some examples include: creating a fake legal document with threats or other instructions hidden within; creating a Thanksgiving card with a small strip of paper glued into the seams that has a code for encrypting a next set of communications; or using ancient languages, such as Aramaic, to communicate threats or other instructions. As a result, even facilities having strict reviewing and handling processes and procedures that are followed for communications with residents are often unable to adequately review the correspondence and/or spend an appreciable amount of resources in the effort.
Communication systems have been developed to facilitate communications between residents and nonresidents of controlled environment facilities. One prior art system, Electronic Message Exchange from Electronic Message Solutions, Inc., allows nonresidents to communicate through a web portal with residents who may only receive written or printed correspondence. A nonresident, sets up an account and, with an Internet browser, logs on to a website that is used for creating and receiving messages. The messages created for delivery to a resident are then printed out and processed as per postal mail, e.g., with regard to reviewing content thereof, before being delivered to the resident. The resident also may receive message forms with boxes to be filled in for identifying the recipient of the resident's message in addition to space for the actual message. The filled out message form may then be processed and converted by an optical scanner into an electronic image that may be downloaded for viewing or otherwise viewed from the web portal by the nonresident.
Residents bear the responsibility of properly identifying the account to be billed when creating and sending messages and, in most cases dutifully perform this task in a timely and correct manner, wanting to communicate with their friends and family. However, some residents may make unintentional mistakes or other residents may purposefully identify an improper account to be billed. As an example, such maliciousness may be due to a resident's desire to prolong the communication between himself and his lawyer to set up grounds for a lawsuit based on inadequate legal representation or inadequate access thereto, or to attempt to send a message to a person or entity that the resident is not allowed to communicate with.
Depending on the facility, some residents may use multiple methods for sending and receiving communication, but may not have a way of selecting to receive messages in different formats. As an example, a resident does not have a way to convert a message originated as a voicemail message to a printed transcript to keep for his/her personal records.